Less known Bordeaux QPRs

Fun article

Though the writing is a bit over-wrought, plenty of interesting ideas & perspectives here. Reinforces my thinking that the old world has so many more value offerings, especially relative to Northern California Cabernet Sauvignon based wines. If only one could find them!

Has anyone tried these wines? Other similar thoughts? Or is this praise of obscurity just to be different?

Thanks for the link, Rich!
A really excellent article from Jon Bonné. I would like to see many more unconventional thinkers like him… :slight_smile:

Interesting! Wines I have never heard of. I’ll be on the look out

I wonder how he found these? At some massive tasting in France? Or are they recommendations from a distributor? Gives me an idea - walk into a good quality wine store (eg. Flatiron, or K&L) and pick 6 Bordeaux under $40 that you’ve never heard of. 2012 or 2014 are good baseline vintages. How many will be worth buying again? The fact that they have these in stock at all must mean they’ve passed some quality standard. Probably.

My problem is that most of the small obscure labels I have tried over the last 5-7 years (maybe more) have tried to be Monbousquet or Confession – very down-scale Pavie. Not that there’s anything wrong with that if it suits your taste, but there aren’t many Carmes Haut Brion or Lanessan out there, and that is what I’d be looking for. Seems as though the author has found a couple here.

And yet $15 Lanessan, $35 Gloria, eg. are hard to beat.

How would these compare to the La Dame de Montrose and Reserve de la Comtesse de Lalande for value?

a fraction of the cost. I haven’t been impressed by 2d wine value for a very long time. Since at least 2000

Interesting…you have about 1000X more experience here than me, so the next obvious question is which relatively readily available QPRs might you recommend to someone seeking an alternative to say the daily drinking cabernet sauvignon wines one might find from CA?

There are a ton of threads on this very subject but many of my favorites are named in this thread

Cambon la Pelouse

Moving a bit to the dark side, but still, at $20-$25, it’s worth a try. The 2010 was case purchase worthy.

la Vieille Cure is also a little bit on the modern side but is a very good value in the same vein. Cantemerle Potensac, Chasse Spleen, Bourgneuf, Greysac, La Cardonne . . . .

d’Aurilhac, Belle Vue, Peyrabon, all these are probably around £100 to £120 a case.

In Fronsac and Canon-Fronsac alone are more than a dozen of really excellent producers. To name the best I have drunk in recent years:

La Dauphine, Moulin Haut-Laroque, Fontenil, Villars, Dalem, Haut-Carles, De La Rivière -especially their luxury Cuvée Aria, Les Trois Croix, La Vielle Cure, Château Canon, Cassagne Haut-Canon La Truffière, Du Gaby, Vrai Canon Bouché…
and outstanding bottles of Canon de Brem, Canon-Moueix, and La Croix Canon, which, unfortunately, no longer exist.

I tasted the 2015 Cantemerle Thursday night and was impressed. Can buy it at $33. Seems a better deal than a pig in a poke.

That said, a couple of the wines listed are from a really good importer, Neal Rosenthal. His wines are generally excellent, although usually not cheap.

This is exactly what I did a few years ago at local liquor stores with a good wine selection, and a new Total Wine nearby. As a result I’ve bought case amounts of many under $30 wines in multiple vintages:
2011,2015 Ch. Guillou, Montagne-St Emilion
2010, 2011, 2012 Ch. d’Arvigny, Haut-Medoc
2010, 2011, 2012 Ch Les Vieilles Pierres, Lussac-St Emilion
2009,2010 Ch. Lalande, St Julien
2009, 2010, 2014 Ch. Marsac Seguineau, Margaux
2010, 2011, 2012, 2014 Ch. Pierre de Montignac, Haut-Medoc
2007, 2009, 2010, 2011 Ch. Larose Trintaudon, Haut-Medoc
2009, 2010, 2014 Ch. Lilian Ladouys, St Estephe

and so on.

A couple of them are Rosenthal and this is a good place to start. Rosenthal also brings in Le Puy whose wines are remarkable as well as several other excellent properties.

Selection Massale brings in Jaugueyron and Maison Blanche.

Kermit has a couple. I like Moulin-Pey-Labrie.

Be warned, these wines are not in the mold of the wines you’ll be used to from the usual suspects but I find many to be quite excellent and much more soulful. I’m converting the wine list I manage to these types Bordeaux exclusively when my Lynch-Bages and such sell through (if they ever do).

How not in the mold?

Awesome.

I try to taste and follow as many Bordeaux value wines as possible. I taste well over 100 different Bordeaux value wines each year.

You should be able to find wines you like for $30 or less from this list of producers from the Right Bank & Left Bank. Bordeaux Value Wine Guide, Small Lesser Known Wines/Vineyards